It took me a while to learn to trust my body when it comes to marathon training. In the past, I put my faith in the training schedule. I would follow it religiously. The prescribed mileages was sacred. If I had missed a day, I would endeavored to make up the missed mileage later.

But that was a blind faith based on emotion, non-scientific, and invariably led to injuries. Because the only consistency in my training was that I “followed” the schedule. Like many runners, my marathon training schedule is a template – not developed specifically for me nor to my fitness level.

Now after more than a dozen of marathons and different training approaches, I have pivoted to using the training schedule as a guide. Depend on how my body feels, how it responds to the training load, and other circumstantial factors that may come up, I adjust my schedule accordingly.

In essence, I am tailoring the training template to suit my specific needs based on my fitness level. Call it experience if you will, but ultimately, it is my body that has to be conditioned to perform on the marathon day. And I have faith that it will get me ready for the Erie Marathon.